San Benedetto in Perillis holds a unique history in the Abruzzo Apennines. The town is located among the hills that connect the Aterno Valley with the Navelli plateau and preserves traces of a very ancient human presence.

One of the most astonishing testimonies to the history of human ingenuity has been found here: a wooden lock dating back to the third millennium BC, considered the oldest known in Europe and perhaps the world. The cylinder system that characterises this mechanism is the direct ancestor of modern locks.

But the uniqueness of this place is not only in the distant past. Beneath the settlement is a complex system of subterranean caves dug into the rock and connected to each other.

For centuries, these underground spaces represented a second dimension of community life. During the coldest winters, when temperatures dropped well below zero, the inhabitants moved into the caves together with the animals that helped to warm the rooms.

In these spaces, the same social, political and family dynamics of the village above ground were recreated, creating a true underground community.

San Benedetto in Perillis thus tells an extraordinary story of human adaptation to the land.